Dear Councilor,
I hope you are doing well. As I am taking a course at Berkshire Community College on Tuesday and Thursday evenings throughout June, I am unable to attend the public comment period at the June 13th City Council meeting. Therefore I am sending my comments to all councilors via email before the meeting.
I am still recommending that the City Council file the petition regarding term limits for public office, which was charter objected at the May 24th meeting.
After sitting through the deliberation on this problematic petition, I want to respond to two major arguments that were brought forth.
#1: This petition should still be referred to the Charter Review Committee:
During the last city council meeting it was argued that this petition should still be referred to the Charter Review Committee in line with other petitions sent to the Committee for them to deliberate over. I do not feel this alone should allow for this petition to be referred.
The Charter Review Committee has already been sent a petition relating to term limits (item number 19 of the April 11th City Council meeting). This petition is open ended, allows the committee to study the pros and cons of term limits, and is strictly limited to discussing term limits. I believe given the responsibilities the Charter Review Committee will be tasked with, reviewing our City Charter and proposing amendments, this is the best way for them to study the issue of term limits and for them to come up with a proposal that they feel would be best for the city and is legally sound, if any proposal is brought forth at all.
The current petition sitting before you does not give this flexibility to the Committee. This petition only permits the Committee to review the proposal instead of coming up with their own proposal for term limits, while also containing a proposal for an age requirement for School Committee members. If a proposal has already been forwarded to the Charter Review Committee relating to term limits that allows them to explore various term limit models, why should another proposal relating to term limits be sent to them again that limits their scope to only a single model? It would be more efficient, and limit misunderstandings, if the Council does not refer this petition to the Charter Review Committee.
And if the City Council does end up referring this petition to the Committee, I and others feel the Council would be implying that it is interested in exploring this proposal that would disenfranchise the voices of young people in this city. It would be better to file this petition, which would still allow the Charter Review Committee to study term limits, while signaling the Council has no interest in limiting the voices of young people in this city.
#2: The Responsibilities of School Committee Members Necessitate an Age Requirement:
It was argued that School Committee members need a sufficient amount of “life experience” in order to properly serve on that body, hence the reason the 30 year age minimum is being put forth. I seriously believe this is not the case. Young people under the age of 30, and even around my age of 19, can bring a lot of experience to the table as a school committee member. For instance, recently former students have directly experienced the effects of the staffing difficulties that the district has faced, and can bring that experience to the table to advocate for changes to alleviate the staffing difficulties (such as raising wages and salaries for support staff and teachers in the district). Why should the city disenfranchise the voices of young people from serving on the School Committee where they bring this unique perspective to the table?
And why should a person under 30 be barred from serving on the school committee when they could serve as City Councilor, Mayor, State Representative, State Senator, Governor, and even Congressional Representative if over the age of 25? Arguably these positions require more expertise as they require working with larger budgets and larger responsibilities that School Committee members are not tasked with. This is especially the case for the offices of Mayor and Governor who are tasked with creating draft budgets, a task that the City Council and School Committee do not have. I do not see any such logical reason why this should be the case unless the goal of the city is to disenfranchise the voices of young people in this city.
For these reasons stated above, I strongly urge the City Council to file this petition to ensure that a proposal that limits the voices of young people in this city is no longer on the table. This will still allow for the Charter Review Committee to review the merits of term limits under a petition previously referred by the Council.
Sincerely yours,
William Garrity